Domain Name Problems and Solutions
Dr. Paul Vixie CEO, FARSIGHT SECURITY
Spammers can’t use dotted quads or any other literal IP address, since SpamAssassin won’t let it through, since it looks too much like spam. So, spammers need cheap and plentiful — dare we say ‘too cheap to meter’? — domain names. The DNS industry is only too happy to provide these domain names, cheaply and at massive scale. The end result is that 90% of all domain names are crap, with more on the way. DNS registrars and registries sometimes cooperate with law enforcement and commercial takedown efforts since it results in domains that die sooner thus creating demand for more domains sooner. Spammers and other abusers of the Internet commons sometimes try to keep their domains alive a little longer by changing name server addresses, or changing name server names, many times per day. All of this action and counteraction leaves tracks, and around those tracks, security minded network and server operators can build interesting defenses including DNS RPZ, a firewall that works on DNS names, DNS responses, and DNS metadata; and NOD, a feed of Newly Observed Domains that can be used for brand enforcement, as well as an RPZ that can direct a DNS firewall to treat infant domain names unfairly. Dr. Paul Vixie, long time maintainer of BIND and now CEO of Farsight Security, will explain and demonstrate.”

Dr. Paul Vixie is the CEO of Farsight Security. He previously served as President, Chairman and Founder of Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), as President of MAPS, PAIX and MIBH, as CTO of Abovenet/MFN, and on the board of several for-profit and non-profit companies. He served on the ARIN Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2013, and as Chairman in 2008 and 2009. Vixie is a founding member of ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) and ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC).

Vixie has been contributing to Internet protocols and UNIX systems as a protocol designer and software architect since 1980. He is considered the primary author and technical architect of BIND 8, and he hired many of the people who wrote BIND 9 and the people now working on BIND 10. He has authored or co-authored a dozen or so RFCs, mostly on DNS and related topics, and of Sendmail: Theory and Practice (Digital Press, 1994). He earned his Ph.D. from Keio University for work related to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS and DNSSEC).